Transfer Project Update: from CCC ‘demo’ to national stage at CCA
CVHEC Transfer Project and PPM moves from ‘demo’ to
CCC ‘Vision 2030’ status; national presentation set
BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Lead
The demonstration status that the Central Valley Transfer Project was conferred by California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian in 2023 has been elevated with the inclusion of the project into the CCC “Vision 2030,” the system announced recently.
Simultaneously, the Transfer Project became formalized when the California State Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved state funding for all colleges to align with the “Program Pathways Mapper” software platform that is the Transfer Project’s central feature.
Now, CVHEC announces that its team will present the Transfer Project at the Complete College America national conference later this fall along with the Central Valley Math Bridge Program presented by College Bridge.
The Central Valley Transfer Project is the fruit of efforts by a small team of Central Valley higher education leaders convened by the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) in 2022 who set out to break down the barriers between community college, California State University and University of California campuses to increase successful transfers from community colleges to four-year institutions.
The project is supported through the PPM software platform, a Cloud-based, public facing application that rides independently on the internet and is accessible to all parties the same as all public applications.
CVHEC’s Transfer Project initiative is also helping eliminate the equity gap among historically underrepresented students, said Stan Carrizosa, president emeritus of College of the Sequoias who is now CVHEC’s Transfer Project co-lead with Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of the Kern Community College District
Now the CVHEC initiative will be shared on the national stage at the Complete College America national conference in Baltimore Nov. 18. A CVHEC team will share how the project originated with a pilot effort including UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College. (CCA line-up)
Chancellor-emeritus Burke will make the trek to Baltimore with Dr. Benjamin Duran, CVHEC executive director, and Jennifer Johnson of California Community Colleges Foundation.
“Our team will present how the process has been refined and streamlined to achieve effective collaboration between all entities,” Burke said.
They will share how CVHEC’s protocols were so successful that CCC Chancellor Christian adopted the Transfer Project as a statewide demonstration project in 2023, first announced at CVHEC’s Higher Education Summit in Fresno that October.
Carrizosa said the Transfer Project process that will be shared at the national conference includes intersegmental convening of faculty, advisors and guidance staff to engage in focused efforts to review, align and approve lower and upper division course sequences as transfer pathways from community colleges to four-year colleges
Through the ease of access to PPM, historically marginalized and underrepresented students have easy access to quality, accurate course sequences to help clearly map their pathway to degree completion, he explained.
“PPM also enables counselors, advisors, high school students and parents to engage with the same official information and start their college planning at any point along their K-12 experience,” Carrizosa said.
“And the Transfer Project is leveraging the implementation of dual enrollment courses in high schools across the system further enhancing timely completion of transfer-level requirements in English and Math and closing the student achievement gap.”
Perhaps just as important, he said, the project now has collected baseline data from 5,000 incoming freshman to Bakersfield College that presents the positive impact the project is having on eliminating the equity gap among historically underrepresented students.
Joining CVHEC at the national conference will be Owyn Lancaster of College Bridge who will discuss in a separate session, “Central Valley Math Bridge: Creating Seamless Pathways for Student Success.”
He will present how the Math Bridge Program, with support from CVHEC and the Rand Corporation, is redefining math education by creating seamless, equity-driven pathways from high school to college and how, through strategic partnerships between high schools and community colleges, the program aligns curriculum, instruction and support to eliminate learning gaps and boost student success. (See related Math Bridge data article in this issue).
“With an 88 percent pass rate and 248 students earning college credit in 2024–25 alone, the initiative proves what’s possible when systems work together,” Lancaster said. “We will discuss with the national audience how Math Bridge isn’t just about curriculum alignment; it’s about reshaping outcomes, removing barriers and transforming how students experience math, paving the way toward educational equity and degree attainment.”
See CCA full lineup
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